Group Protesting Poor School Conditions

Fifty members of the SHATIL-led Forum for Arab Education in the Negev, as well as members of parents' committees from recognized and unrecognized Bedouin villages and their children, greeted the first day of school with a demonstration. In front of the Ministry of Education office in Be'er Sheva, the group protested the government's "abandonment" of Arab education in the Negev. At the demonstration, MK Taleb a-Sana demanded the Knesset urgently address the fact that two schools in Kseife and Segev Shalom did not open this year because of a parents' strike over the lack of basic equipment like sinks and toilets. In addition, a-Sana pointed to the failures of the Bedouin education system in general: low standards and achievements, overcrowding, lack of classrooms, poor management, violence and serious security and sanitary violations.

On the bright side, Forum pressure led to a Ministry of Education announcement of the opening of a new school in the unrecognized village of Wadi El Na'am, which will greatly improve the educational situation in the village.